Episode Archive for The Assembly Call

Welcome to today’s edition of Banner Morning, published on Wednesday, August 15th, 2018.

We are now 45 days away from Hoosier Hysteria.

In recruiting news …

Fast-rising big man Kadin Shedrick out of Holly Springs, North Carolina, who recently received an offer from Indiana, announced his Final 8 on Twitter last night.

The list includes Virginia, Florida, Wake Forest, Louisville, Xavier, Providence, Wisconsin, and … Indiana.

Shedrick is 6’10, 200 pounds, and is currently not ranked by either 247 or Rivals. But expect that to change. Brian Snow of 247Sports described Shedrick as “one of the biggest breakout performers of the month of July” who “saw his stock explode.”

Shedrick hasn’t visited Bloomington yet, so the next step will be getting him on campus. According to Snow, Shedrick has already taken an unofficial visit to Wake Forest and has two official visits scheduled later this month to Virginia and Xavier.

If Indiana can get him on campus, Shedrick’s name definitely becomes one to watch for the Class of 2019.

On this date in IU history …

On August 15th, 2012, it was reported that Ron Patterson, the Indianapolis native who was part of the recruiting class dubbed “The Movement”, would not be attending IU for the 2012-13 season after to failing to qualify academically.  

Patterson’s departure helped Indiana solve its scholarship issue — as the Hoosiers were oversigned by one scholarship — just days prior to being in violation of NCAA rules.

But it was also the first sign that The Movement might not live up to the massive hype that accompanied it. Yogi Ferrell certainly did, but the class as a whole was one of the more disappointing groups in recent IU history.

Patterson would play two seasons at Syracuse before transferring to IUPUI, where he averaged 9.8 points per game over two seasons.

My thanks to IUArtifacts for contributing to this report.

And there are birthdays today …

Happy birthday to Larry Richardson and the great Bobby Wilkerson.

Richardson, a 6-8 forward, played at Indiana from 1996 through 2000. He posted his best numbers as a senior, scoring 5.6 points and grabbing 3.4 rebounds per game.

Many IU fans remember the so-called “Larry Richardson Game” from his senior season when Richardson exploded for a career-high 25 points in a home victory over Penn State.

Wilkerson, a 6-6 guard who often jumped center, played at Indiana from 1973-1976. He posted his best numbers as a senior, scoring 7.8 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.9 rebounds.

But box score numbers don’t really come close to capturing Wilkerson’s impact. With fellow guard Quinn Buckner, Wilkerson formed one of the best backcourt defensive duos in the history of college basketball — a major catalyst in Indiana’s two-year run in 1975 and 1976 during which the lost a grand total of one game.

Wilkerson had a 7-year NBA career during which he averaged 10.1 points per game.

Remember to come hang out with us on Thursday nights at 9:00 ET on YouTube for the live broadcast of Assembly Call Radio, and then immediately following every IU game once the season begins.

Welcome Hoosier fans to another edition of Banner Morning, posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2018.

We are now 46 days away from Hoosier Hysteria.

In recruiting news …

The schedule for Center Grove High School was released yesterday. That, of course, is the high school of Indiana’s top priority in the Class of 2019: 5-star center Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The date to circle? December 8th. That is the date of Tip-Off Classic in Southport, where Center Grove’s opponent will be La Lumiere — the new school for Indiana’s other top priority in the Class of 2019: 5-star forward Keion Brooks, who recently announced he would transfer to La Lumiere from Fort Wayne North Side.

I’m guessing there will be more than a few fans decked out in Cream and Crimson in the stands for that one.

And in statistical analysis …

Something we will do on these slow news days is dip into a little bit of statistical analysis tohelp set the stage for the 2018-19 season to come.

First up, we’ll run through some individual player statistics that really need to improve this season for Indiana to achieve its potential and be a contender in the Big Ten.

And we’ll start here:

Juwan Morgan’s Free Throw Percentage

Last season, Juwan Morgan had a Free Throw Rate of 49.9%. That is outstanding — in fact, it was in the top 150 in the entire country. What it means is that Juwan earned himself a free throw for every two field goal attempts he put up. That’s a really, really good ratio — a testament to how difficult it was for opposing defenses to deal with Juwan last season.

The problem? He only made 63.1 percent of his free throws — often missing key free throws late in games when he was understandably fatigued … but still. Those freebies can be the difference between winning and losing, and Juwan has to be able to capitalize at a higher clip.

Get this: there wasn’t one other Hoosier who took even half as many free throws as Juwan did last year, so his free throw woes were the primary cause of Indiana’s woeful 65.7% free throw shooting as a team — which was 331st in the country.

I wouldn’t normally make this big a deal about free throws — except that Juwan’s past suggests that expecting major improvement isn’t a stretch. Juwan shot 73.9% from the line on 88 attempts as a sophomore and 80% on 30 attempts as a freshmen. That’s a decent sample size of solid free throw shooting.

What does this desired improvement mean in practical terms? Juwan took 168 free throws last season and made 106. If he takes the same number this season and makes 20 more, he would be right at 75%. That’s less than a free throw per game. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

But as we all know, all too often it’s which free throws are made and missed that really matters. And with how often Juwan is likely to be at the line this season, I’m guessing 20 more makes could be the difference between at least a win or two, maybe more.

If Juwan can do this — if he can just return to his free throw shooting success from his first two years in Bloomington — it could be the difference between Juwan being just another good senior on a good team … or Juwan being an All American on a really good team that competes for a Big Ten title.

Coming up on the next slow news day, I will analyze another individual statistic that desperately needs to improve this season: Devonte Green’s assist-turnover ratio.

We are now 47 days away from Hoosier Hysteria.

In recruiting news …

On Friday, 4-star guard James Bouknight from Massachusetts announced his Final 5 schools on Twitter. There were no surprises. Indiana made the cut, along with UCONN, Virginia Tech, Miami, and VCU.

Now we wait to find out when he will take his official visit to Bloomington.

In schedule news …

The University of Central Arkansas announced its 2018-19 schedule on Sunday … and Indiana was included, meaning the non-conference puzzle is nearly complete.

Central Arkansas had one of its best seasons in recent history last year, going 18-17 and finishing #213 in kenpom rankings. Unfortunately, their prospects for having a similar ranking this year do not appear promising. While two of their four most productive players were freshmen, the other two were seniors, including their best guard.

And recent history does not suggest that this is a resilient program. Before last season, Central Arkansas had finished 275 or worse in kenpom in every season since 2007. Only three of those seasons were top-300 finishes. The kenpom preseason projections aren’t out yet, but in Bart Torvik’s preseason projections, Central Arkansas is 311th.

While we await the official schedule announcement from IU, here is what we currently know. All rankings are Torvik’s preseason projections, which you can find at BartTorvik.com.

• Indiana will open against #347 Chicago State on November 6th
• On November 14th, Indiana hosts #31 Marquette in the Gavitt Games
• On November 18th, Indiana travels to Arkansas to play the 87th-ranked Razorbacks
• On November 20th, Indiana hosts #308 UT-Arlington. These last two games are part of the 4-team exempt event with Arkansas, #77 UC-Davis, and #273 Montana State. We are still awaiting the dates for the UC-Davis and Montana State games
• Indiana travels to Duke for their ACC-Big Ten challenge matchup on November 27th. Duke is preseason #3.
• The Hoosiers host #45 Louisville at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on December 8th.
• The following weekend, Indiana will play #44 Butler in the Crossroads Classic.
• Then on December 19th, Indiana hosts #311 Central Arkansas.

That’s 10 non-conference games. With 20 Big Ten games this season, the schedule is nearly complete.

So in summation:

• 4 games against teams projected to be top-50
• Including those four, there are six games total against teams projected to be top-100
• Then there are four games against teams projected to be in the bottom 273.

While that last bullet point may be concerning to IU fans who pay a lot of attention to non-conference strength of schedule, just start scrolling back through Indiana’s non-conference slates over the past decade and you’ll immediately see that this schedule is an improvement.

I will be taking a deep dive into the schedule on this week’s edition of Podcast on the Brink with Alex Bozich, which should be posted at InsideTheHall.com sometime on Tuesday.